My experience with ComCast was that everytime you spoke with someone you got a different story.

You're probably better off going to one of their retail locations with the printouts and giving them a hard time there.

In general, Comcast, at least around here, has a huge dislike for cablecards and wants to do as little as possible to support them. Several of the Comcast employees that I spoke with were outright hostile toward having to support them, and it seemed like management was actually trying to create that air of hostility. The flip side was that CSRs at Comcast had basically no training in how to support Cable Cards, and this did not seem like an accident.

Go there in person, and take the printouts with you.

I think I was paying 5.99 and 2.99 for two cards respectively...

Gerhard

PS Comcasts hostility and the fact the it was a huge effort to deal with them caused me to move to Verizon FIOS TV.

Premium Channel Woes!
Had my Comcast visit yesterday. Tech brought only 2 cards. We followed instructions (card 1, then card 2). But after each "hit" only got basic channels. He explained it "takes time" for card to download all channel information. But he gave me his number and said to call in an hour if no change. Called in an hour and he got a second "hit" sent. Both cards now showed digital channels but only one card displayed premium (HBO) channels. Second tech came next morning and replaced card 2. Still no premium channels. Called TIVO - who said it is a Comcast issue.

Has anyone had experience where premium channels not displayed for only one card?

After being charged $17.90 monthly for my single S3 (in addition to digital subscription fees) I returned it for a refund and took the SA8300HD from Comcast for (I think it is - my brain is dead from all the price changes by Comcast) $11.95 monthly. Now that the new TiVo HD is out and it takes an M card, I wonder what the posture of Comcast here in S FL will be. If I can get a working CC (M or 2 singles) for less than $10 a month, I'd be inclined to go back to TiVo, especially since I have 2.5 years of prepaid service going to waste.
Has anyone in S FL (DelRay/Boca) actually got the cable card charges reconciled to less than the $17.90 I was being ripped off for? (I had just the S3 Tivo - no Comcast cable boxes or other CCs)

I just got off the phone (1-800-comcast) and the rep told me the cable cards for a tivo will cost $14.45 each. Her answer to my price quote from the web page is that the website prices have not been updated. That's a total of $28.90, up another $11.00 from when I canceled a couple weeks ago! And up $23.40 from a month ago. Incidentaly, though I was as pleasant as I could be the rep's attitude became decidedly "frosty" when I said I was interested in adding a TiVo to my cable services

drcos and chelsel - have you reconciled anything with Comcast and or have you seen this new price I was quoted?

I just got off the phone (1-800-comcast) and the rep told me the cable cards for a tivo will cost $14.45 each. Her answer to my price quote from the web page is that the website prices have not been updated. That's a total of $28.90, up another $11.00 from when I canceled a couple weeks ago! And up $23.40 from a month ago. Incidentaly, though I was as pleasant as I could be the rep's attitude became decidedly "frosty" when I said I was interested in adding a TiVo to my cable services

drcos and chelsel - have you reconciled anything with Comcast and or have you seen this new price I was quoted?

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Maybe you should call TiVo and see if they have the new CableCARD support group (referenced in some of the TiVo HD posts) setup yet. You can tell them that you are having trouble with installation. The cable company wants to charge you over twice as much for the CableCARDs as they do for their own PVR (which BTW after July 1st are also supposed to use CableCARDs)

I'm a Houston Comcast customer (they just tookover for TWC) with and had both cable cards working great a few weeks back after a few setup issues. However, now there are some problems with some of the HD channels. One hardly comes in at all and others have pixel looking distortions periodically and the sounds cuts in and out. Not all the HD channels are affected and some times it's worse than others. The same problems occur on both tuners at the same time. I called Comcast last night and a tech is coming out Sat. I was wondering if anyone else has had similar problems so I can discuss it with the tech when he comes.

i had digital cable and cablecards installed last may. everything was working fine, except we kept getting a $5.99 "Digital Access Fee" along with the regular cost of our package. tempting fate, i called yesterday and found out that they had set up my account with 2 cablecards, but not for a S3 TiVo. the csr said he would take care of it and then promptly deleted one of the cards from my account causing one of the CC to stop working. calling back, i got another CSR who seemed to think the $5.99 charge was correct, but when i politely referred her to the comcast FAQ on cablecard pricing that explicitly states how S3s should be handled, she apologized and eventually found the correct code for my setup. so, supposedly, i have a credit for the months in which we paid the "Digital Access Fee" and i should be charged only $1.50 per month for the additional card. we'll see when next months bill rolls around.

i will say everyone at comcast has tried to be very helpful, but they obviously just don't deal with cablecards and S3s very often. the FAQ on cablecards is your best weapon and taking a firm but gentle approach with them seemed to work best for me. at least once things are entered correctly the cablecards work beautifully.

Comcast customer in Philadelphia here, thinking about getting a TiVoHD. I have a question about fees.

Right now, I have a regular digital box feeding a Series 2 TiVo in the bedroom, a regular digital box feeding a Series 2 TiVo in the living room, and a Motorola 3416 DVR, also in the living room. I am paying $11.95 for the DVR and $8.90 for an "additional outlet," on top of the base fee for the digital package with HBO.

If I buy the TiVoHD and replace both boxes in the living room with two cable cards, will I still have to pay the "additional outlet" fee, even though I'll only have a single Comcast box?

Comcast customer in Philadelphia here, thinking about getting a TiVoHD. I have a question about fees.

Right now, I have a regular digital box feeding a Series 2 TiVo in the bedroom, a regular digital box feeding a Series 2 TiVo in the living room, and a Motorola 3416 DVR, also in the living room. I am paying $11.95 for the DVR and $8.90 for an "additional outlet," on top of the base fee for the digital package with HBO.

If I buy the TiVoHD and replace both boxes in the living room with two cable cards, will I still have to pay the "additional outlet" fee, even though I'll only have a single Comcast box?

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You get one outlet with your programming package.

For each outlet (both the included "first outlet" and each additional outlet you pay for) you can have one free CableCARD. An additional CableCARD for each outlet is $1.50/month.

So you'll have one cable box and two TiVO HD units, each with CableCARDs. That's three outlets total. You'll pay 2 additional outlet fees and, unless multistream CableCARDs are available in your market, will pay 2 $1.50 additional CableCARD fees for each TiVo HD unit.

If the Comcast box you're keeping is an HD DVR you'll also be paying the fee for that.

Comcast customer in Philadelphia here, thinking about getting a TiVoHD. I have a question about fees.

Right now, I have a regular digital box feeding a Series 2 TiVo in the bedroom, a regular digital box feeding a Series 2 TiVo in the living room, and a Motorola 3416 DVR, also in the living room. I am paying $11.95 for the DVR and $8.90 for an "additional outlet," on top of the base fee for the digital package with HBO.

If I buy the TiVoHD and replace both boxes in the living room with two cable cards, will I still have to pay the "additional outlet" fee, even though I'll only have a single Comcast box?

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Each "box" counts as an outlet, whether it is a cable box or a CableCard device (Tivo). So if you have one cablebox and one TivoHD, the additional charges will be:

For each outlet (both the included "first outlet" and each additional outlet you pay for) you can have one free CableCARD. An additional CableCARD for each outlet is $1.50/month.

So you'll have one cable box and two TiVO HD units, each with CableCARDs. That's three outlets total. You'll pay 2 additional outlet fees and, unless multistream CableCARDs are available in your market, will pay 2 $1.50 additional CableCARD fees for each TiVo HD unit.

If the Comcast box you're keeping is an HD DVR you'll also be paying the fee for that.

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I would only have one TiVoHD unit, not two. I'm replacing two boxes (a DVR and a standard box) with a single TiVoHD housing two Cablecards. In the living room - single TiVoHD unit with two cable cards. In the bedroom - standard digital box feeding Series 2 TiVo.

It sucks that the TiVoHD counts as an "outlet." I thought that was a box rental fee, not a content mirroring fee. I was using the disappearance of the "additional outlet" fee to justify the purchase of the TiVoHD.

Has anyone had experience where premium channels not displayed for only one card?

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Not premium channels (HBO, Cinemax, etc.), but all the "Cable Plus" channels (ESPNHD, Flix, etc.) were a problem for me. It is an issue with the info not being entered correctly on the cable company's end. So the "hit" they send doesn't include all of the features that it should.

OK, at least I now know why the cards won't authorize - their systems are down

But at least I physically have the cards! Woot!

And he gave me their internal dispatch number in case the system doesn't come up before 5 and all the normal contact center folks go home. So hopefully sometime tonight I'll have two activated cable cards

EDIT: SIGH.... now they are wanting to switch the cards out. Friday night will be the next attempt. The saga continues....

Oh the joy of Comcast... Moved into a new apartment on 14th, had already purchased Series 3, and wanted service activated and cable cards installed that day. Tech shows up without cable cards. He says that he is a contractor tech and that they are not allowed to do the cable card installs. Then why in the heck did comcast send him when my order explicitly stated cable card install?!?!?!? I spent the next two hours plus on hold/trying to get dispatch to find someone to bring me cable cards. Finally give in and decide to call again the next day.

On the 15th, CSR tells me that I need to just go pick up cable cards at my local office, because it could take over a week to get a new tech out. Go to the office on the 16th, and none of the workers even know what a cable card is.... WOW. Call again and set up an appointment... for today, the 25th. Apparently comcast in Memphis has specific cable card techs, and after talking to at least 10 different people, I finally got an appointment with one of them.

Appointment today is from 2-4PM. I had a call from the tech yesterday confirming my appointment for today. 4PM rolls around and I haven't heard anything. I call in to dispatch to check on my guy, and my appointment has been CANCELED!!! WTF??? Was anyone going to notify my that my appointment had been canceled? I was never even able to get a reason why it was canceled. The dispatcher is currently looking for another tech to bring me cable cards. Given their track record, I doubt this happens. Guess I'll be making another appointment for two weeks down the road..........

Not premium channels (HBO, Cinemax, etc.), but all the "Cable Plus" channels (ESPNHD, Flix, etc.) were a problem for me. It is an issue with the info not being entered correctly on the cable company's end.

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Had that same problem with the 'digital plus' channels, it was a billing/info error.

MEANWHILE...went to my local office today, where we determined (using the handy Comcast price list and printouts from the web pages)...
First outlet, one card no charge, second card $1.50
Second outlet, $13.90 (6.95 for digital outlet, 6.95 for HD), includes one card, second card is $1.50.

The helpful (seriously) rep did not want to screw with the account as it is working and she is 'not that familiar' with the cable cards/billing. She said she would have a knowledgeable rep contact me with questions, etc. The other two reps in the office were also helpful and curious to the situation and agreed that some of the charges I had been told about by various phone reps were 'bogus.'

Also, we discussed the fact that their tech removed my modem late last year and replaced it with a new modem, which they started charging me rental for. She noted on the account that since they removed my (owned) modem, the new modem is now mine.

So, the additional fees for (2) Tivos should be $16.90 total, as opposed to the $30-40 I was paying for two HD-DVR's. We shall see...